Not so recent project...

With all the fun I've been having behind the scenes at 52Quilters things have been pretty quiet here in my little corner of the world wide weberverse. Well I say quiet, but I have been making behind the scenes and working on a few new projects, including a plan to spruce things up around here.

For now, I'm catching up with a share of a make I finished earlier this year. A gift for a mother and father-to-be which I had a really fun time making. After drowning myself in pinterest inspiration for bold geometric patterns, I decided to play more with stripes than shape and developed this off-centre broken stripe pattern, and created some foundation pieced templates for myself so I could keep things as precise as possible.

From there I played a bit with colour and rotation to create the quilt below.  On the back, I played with light and dark blues and carried the broken stripe motif but cut out the random angles.

I'm really happy with the pattern, and am thinking of developing it into a free resource or tutorial, once I get my new and improved site up and running! Obviously, I'm a bit behind in my to-do list - I actually finished this project in MARCH - hence the title of this post.

Curious Fractals - part two

I'm continuing to work on my Curious Fractals quilt, paused only slightly by a combination of fabric miscalculation and mishap. First I underestimated how much I would need of a certain colour, and the secondly I cut out a few framing pieces using the wrong-side of the template, meaning they are backwards.

I could piece a replacement piece together with scraps, but with my points so on fleek (see post below) - I've decided to hunt for a few extra fat quarters so I can finish it off properly. After much searching fabric is on its way, so I hope to finish this quilt by Christmas.

I've been posting progress as I go on instagram. Follow along #CuriousFractals #WillThisEverEnd?

More points on fleek today. Finally getting to my Easter weekend sewing with my #curiousfractals project. #quiltonfleek #menwhoquilt

A photo posted by Chris Webb (@chrismakesthings) on Mar 28, 2016 at 9:15am PDT

Another shot with some of my pieces laid out.

Feels like I painted (quilted?) myself into a corner a bit with my #curiousfractals project. Deciding how best to square off my icositetragon (24 sided patchwork) - 5 of the 24 fragments seen here... #menwhoquilt #parsongray

A photo posted by Chris Webb (@chrismakesthings) on Feb 21, 2016 at 2:52am PST

Curious Fractals - part one

This year I have a few projects I want to work on, and spending my first week of the year over on 52Quilters was a great year to help me sort out my ideas and draw up a proper work list.

I've written a lot about craft as a kind of sustenance for me, something that helps me focus, keep balance, and save time for myself, but I've always been careful to categorise it as play and not "work".... My approach for 2016 is to do the opposite, not categorise it as work in the sense that it's going be to major source of income, but to acknowledge the need to develop myself and just generally do more. It's work in the same way that going to the gym, read a challenging book, or forcing myself to go to the dentist is work: sometimes a pain, but mostly very good for me!

So my first project of 2016 is my Curious Fractals quilt. Quite a few years ago I broke my own stash rules and bought up a good selection of fabrics from David Butler's Curious Nature collection, and I've been sitting on them, failing to get off my stash ever since.

After trying a few different ideas, and building up anxiety over cutting into my stash, I've decided to revisit my fractals pattern from the Mini Rainbow Swap last year. To enlarge my colour rainbow mini that had 8 colours repeating three times, and create a much larger and squared off version using 12 colours of Curious Nature repeating twice.

Last look before its off in the post to my partner - I hope you like it! #rainbowminiswap #rainbowteamYELLOW

A photo posted by Chris Webb (@chrismakesthings) on Mar 31, 2015 at 11:42pm PDT

I'm using paper piecing for this project, the quilter is divided into 24 fragments, each made up of three paper pieced pieces. I haven't decided how I'm going to frame/square off the work, but I've started on the fragments. 

I know per piecing is a fast and straightforward way to piece, but I forgot how much prep there is: cutting out the 72 fragments, numbering fabrics and laying out what fabric corresponds which each piece. I spent most of the first weekend of January planning instead of sewing, but progress is slowly underway.

The first cut is the deepest.... Finally cutting into my stash of #curiousnature to make my #curiousfractals quilt. #menwhoquilt

A photo posted by Chris Webb (@chrismakesthings) on Jan 17, 2016 at 10:02am PST

I've made my first cuts and will be updating on here and Instagram as Curious Fractals comes together!